2010-11 Premier League Season In Review (EPL Talk Podcast)

Laurence McKenna, Kartik Krishnaiyer, Richard Farley and The Gaffer team up to dissect the 2010-11 Premier League season that was from the best footballers, Manchester United’s run in the Champions League, Swansea City’s climb into the top tier and much more.

Krishnaiyer and McKenna go through the list of each Premier League club and name the footballers who stood-out, what Arsenal needs to do to fix things for next season, as well as Richard Farley’s input regarding the season as a whole.

Plus The Gaffer joins for a few minutes to share what it means to Swansea City to be promoted to the Premier League after so many years of pain, agony and defeat.

Thanks for a great season. We hope you’ve enjoyed the EPL Talk Podcast episodes. We’ve certainly enjoyed putting them together. We’ll be back with a few episodes throughout the summer such as previews of next season and more. But until then, enjoy your football.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

27 Comments

Daniel MullinsMay 30, 2011

Excellent Podcast- I am glad I found it. I used to listen to World Soccer Daily, the shows were upwards of 2 hours long, sometimes more. The one host was a Liverpool supporter and the other was a Chelsea or Arsenal fan. Of course they railed against Man U, every chance they got.

This is such a better podcast. I’d like to maybe see a transfer show with potential rumors and other items, if possible.

I have to agree with Brian. Arteta started off the year really poor, being too cautious with the ball and passing it sideways and backwards all the time. His free kicks and corners have also been rather shocking leading to him conceding most duties to Baines. He started coming into it in February but then got hurt. He played fairly well in the last match though so I’m hoping he figures things out next season.

I also disagree that Beckford has been a mistake. Everton got him on a free and he finished with 10 goals and one of the top 20 goals per minute ratios in the Premier League. He’s got a lot to work on but he should be a capable backup at least for a few years. Moyes just has to realize he can’t play as a lone striker.

I completely agree with Moyes being more pragmatic when it comes to selling players like Pienaar. We lost money on that deal certainly. I think Moyes was afraid to lose him after the great end to 09/10 and foolishly thought Pienaar would sign eventually.

The thing with Pienaar though is Moyes repeatedly said last summer that he was willing to let Pienaar to leave on free after his contract expired. Moyes said he hoped Pienaar would sign a new contract, but was realisitc. The fact that he got 3 million pounds for Pienaar, who had an awful World Cup and first half of the season, and only had 6 months on his contract was a pretty good deal. Especially considering he hasn’t exactly done anything at Spurs so far. If Moyes was going to sell him it would have been done after 08/09 season, but Moyes has always said he would keep him.

Moyes Squad has never been strong in ALL places though has it? Not because he has been poor, but because injuries have not served him or his players well and it’s led to a kind of ‘next season’ mentality. The building becomes something stable in the end, but if they continue in this same culture they can’t move forward right? Or am I wrong?

The past few seasons have started out so poorly that the “next season” mentality does seem prevalent in the club. What I find interesting is that the players only really seem to gain that fire, tenacity and effort after the chips are down. There will be numerous injuries to big players and pundits will start discussing relegation and then all of a sudden, Everton become a scrappy team again, pushing on to the top half of the table.

Moyes himself has said he doesn’t know why the slow starts are happening every year. He said he’s going to try to duplicate the 04/05 preseason, starting with the American tour and hope for a similar start and finish (4th place). Personally I think Everton were trying to play a possession type game in the first half of the season but our possession was mostly just cautious passing in the midfield. Early on, lower teams seem to park the bus more, afraid of losing games. Our attack just wasn’t capable of breaking that kind of defense down. Oddly enough it seemed like losing Cahill forced Everton to re-evaluate the formation and attack structures, allowing guys like Osman to move the ball around a little better and create more opportunities.

It’ll be interesting to see what Moyes does this summer to try and re-vitalize the club.

Laurence that is very true, I can’t remember where I saw it, but there was a stat going around about how we use the fewest number of players in EPL games over a whole season for whatever reason. As for the sluggish start, I’m interested to see the upcoming season because 10/11 was the first time in the past few years that injuries were not the cause of our problems to begin the season. Normally we would have numerous key players out until the new year, at which point everyone would return and we would go on a tear. This year everyone just seemed out of sorts, and I want to see what happens if we don’t have early season injuries before passing judgement. Assuming Moyes does stay of course

I usually enjoy Kartik’s analysis but his take on the CL final was just laughable. I guess he watched a different game from everywhere else or didn’t want to give Barcelona their due as a result of his inaccurate prediction. To discuss the absence of Fletcher and a minority group of foolish fans rather than discussing the dominance of Barcelona with his level of expertise was hysterical. The final scoreline was flattering to United and they could have easily lost 4-1 or 5-1 and didn’t create any chances in the second half yet Fletcher would have made this a completely different match? Riiiiiiight. I know it’s an EPL podcast but this type of bias was very uncharacteristic of the podcast. Just my .02

Not to speak too much for Mr. Krishnaiyer, but to me it sounds like he’s more sick of the pretension that seems to emanate from the proponents of the 20 pass per minute game. I’ll leave it at this: Barcelona was down to Arsenal before a questionable 2nd yellow, and perhaps the Gunners would have folded regardless, but it’s not like Barcelona was this juggernaut that beat everyone 10-0.

Excellent season-ending podcast. Thank you!! Great to hear Richard one more time, I wish him the best of luck (too bad he can’t stay on, the dynamic between you three is outstanding).

I agree with Kartik’s take on the CL final; a number of disappointing performances by some on their side. It might not have made a difference in who won, as Barca is clearly the best team, but it could have been a little closer at least.

I’ll second the nod for a transfer-related podcast. A few of these would make the summer go faster. 🙂

I’ll add my opinion to your questions from the cast:

Player of the Year = Chicharito. He changed the title race. Slightly nudges out Tevez, in my mind.

Team of the Year = Stoke. They have solidified their position, transitioned to a more open style, made a cup final, and are the team no big side wants to play.

Manager of the Year = SAF. He not only won the league, but he did it while transitioning United to a younger side with nobody noticing (Nani, Fabio, Smalling, Chicharito). Scary to think they are gearing up for another few years of dominance.

Ultimately, my fondest memories of this season are with Blackpool. Shame they couldn’t stick around.

I’m not sure that Kartik is bitter. He does note how well they play and that people aspire to be at that standard. I think he has an issue with the periphery arguments that go with the way they win. It isn’t actually Barca who has the problem, it’s the people who say that all teams should play that way. It makes it sound like a religion and it can be dogmatic for some.

I aspire to see my team play that well, but not necessarily in that style.

Laurence, I think Arsenal should definitely get a new central defense. We need more beef in the back. The current center-backs are just not good enough for the Premier League. Also, we need to get more physically strong players in midfield. the last time we won the Premier League, we weren’t too concerned with playing beautiful football. We would try to score a quick goal without worrying about looking pretty. We also need strikers who can deliver. Chamakh and Bendtner should be sold. We need a skilled striker alongside Van Persie. If I a team like Liverpool with no Champions League football next year can get Luis Suarez and Andy Caroll, I don’t see why we can’t.

Best Player – Darren Bent. On the day of his transfer to Aston Villa, the West Midlands club was in 16th place and looking at a serious fight for their lives in the Premier League. At the same time, the team he left Sunderland was in 6th place. In the final table, AV finished one position higher than the Black Cats, but that doesn’t tell the whole tale. Villa stabilized with Bent, who scored 9 goals in the final 16 matches. Sunderland floundered until the final month. Honorable Mention – Carlos Tevez, Nemanja Vidic, Peter Odemwingie

Best Team – Fulham. They had the greatest position change in the table from last season, not to mention they have qualified for the Europa League again via the Fair Play Rankings, where they’ve flourished in the past. Honorable Mention – Manchester City, Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion.

Best Manager – Alex Ferguson. There were quite a few subplots going on throughout this season for ManUtd. The Rooney saga, Berbatov’s hot start, Chicharito’s development, Valencia’s injury. There aren’t many managers who would have sat Berbatov for Hernandez. Consistent and better than the rest. Honorable Mention: Mark Hughes, Roberto Mancini, David Moyes.

I have never commented on any board about anything football related before but Kartik’s vitriolic rant against Barcelona and Arsenal’s style of play is emblematic of the obvious grandeurs of delusional powers he possesses. In social psychology this is known as cognitive dissonance and Kartik’s demagoguery of the tiki-taka style of football is a classic example of this.

In his attempt to reduce and blame Barcelona fans for their fervent favoring of this type of football, he is ultimately only denying the reality of the overwhelming evidence that the football world is beginning to shift in it’s approach and style to the game itself -in large part because of Barcelona’s recent success.

I know this is a bitter pill for Kartik to swallow because of his overall view of the game itself. I am all for divergent opinions, it just gets a little tedious when grown men throw the equivalent of “two-year old verbal temper tantrums” by having to demean and dismiss the clear evidence that Barcelona have been champions of the world two of the past three years not in spite of but because of their style of play.

I know he emphatically believes that if Fletcher would have played or if coincidentally a couple of Manu’s midfielders didn’t just happen to have the worst games of their careers or if the pitch size was different, that his preferred style of play would have triumphed in the end.

The bottom line is that I believe a decent chunk of the English press and their “American pundit knockoffs” that regurgitate these same old tired arguments are jealous and pissed off that their preferred style of football is beginning to lose ground to the Barca style of play and that the beautiful game is once again beginning to live up to it’s worthy name.

That wasn’t the argument that Kartik was making at all. He noted that United didn’t have a more sturdy midfielder (Fletcher) and that the midfield was disappointing (which it was). He said it would have been different, he didn’t say that United would have won if they had Fletcher.

The british press were all over Barca and their beautiful play the next day, to talk about other styles of football is not to put down the style. Kartik was saying that he didn’t like how some people preach as if there is only one style of football to be played. If football does live up to it’s worthy name then we will see a diversity of football because we see beauty in all different kinds of play for contrasting reasons. Not once did Kartik attack their style of football or put it down.

Kartik is on this show because he can hold conflicting ideas and contrast them with others. If he had ‘waxed’ about Barca some people wouldn’t have appreciated that either. No one of this site is under any illusions about their place in the public sphere, they can aspire and work towards a position of trust but we all realise that this blog is here to read and debate football.

The beauty of football is based on opinion and belief. He shouldn’t be attacked or belittled for holding a different view to others, he should be debated and questioned, which happens on a regular basis: Twitter, the pod, comments etc.

I hope we’ll see you back with a comment about football or the pod some time soon.